Biogeographic and adaptative history of the butterfly Heliconius erato in Neotropical forests: understanding the past to preserve the future

• Grant number: 24/18838-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: André Victor Lucci Freitas
• Grantee: Patrícia Avelino Machado
• Supervisor: Karina Lucas da Silva-Brandao
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Leibniz Institute For The Analysis Of Biodiversity Change, Hamburg, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/13396-6 - Biogeographic and adaptive history of the Heliconius erato butterfly in Neotropical forests: understanding the past to preserve the future., BP.DR

Abstract

The contribution of invertebrates to biogeographic studies in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes is still scarce compared to studies carried out on plants and vertebrates. In this context, studies with butterflies have long contributed to understanding evolutionary and ecological patterns and can add knowledge about evolution in these biomes. The butterfly Heliconius erato (Nymphalidae: Heliconiini) is widely distributed in the Neotropics, from Mexico to northern Argentina, and occurs in several biomes, including the Atlantic Forest, the Cerrado savannas and the Amazon. The main objective of this project is to describe the genomic variability among populations of H. erato sampled in different locations in the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest and to search for polymorphisms adaptive to the different landscapes where the populations occur, correlating the genetic structure with the biogeographic and adaptive history of these butterflies. The proposed study model, with its historical applications in ecological and evolutionary studies, as well as more recent appications in genomics, contributes to our understanding of the factors underlying the great diversity in the Neotropics, and how this biodiversity may has responded to climate change through time.